Seven Summits Body – Fitness and Training

Author: charlesmiske

  • Taper Purgatory 6 Days Out

    Taper Purgatory 6 Days Out

    Of all the crazy things to do, with only a handful of days to go, I ended up with new shoes. I have been having trouble with my feet for a couple months now, from nearly-blistered hotspots to plantar fasciitis, to bleeding scrapes from the shoe itself. My Topo Athletic Ultraventure Pro (?) died a horrible death, and only about 100-ish miles into it. The plastic toe cap liner (protects from rocks) delaminated, and the edges curled under cutting my toes on the descent. I was going to wear them too. I took them in to where I bought them, Runners Corner in Orem, and the girl who ended up having to put her magazine down didn’t want to help, said there was no such thing as delamination, and wanted to know if there was something I wanted to buy. I declined much more gracefully than I would have liked to.

    @vk.trailrunner

    descending a steep loose rugged trail is pretty risky for some especially me #trailrunning #BrokenArrowSkyrace

    ♬ original sound – Charles Miske

    With only a week to go, I got talked into going in to Utah Run in American Fork. I have gotten a few pairs of shoes there, and appreciate the more inclusive and open-minded employees there. Hope we didn’t just jinx them. I ended up with a pair of Saucony Peregrine 11, which have sufficient curvature for my wacked feet, and tread that reminds me a bit of my old Salomon Crossmax I used to run in way back before Hoka.

    My own taper program, derived from modeling 2019 (Broken Arrow VK, at which I felt really strong) I had a couple miles on the treadmill with a few quick intervals/strides in store, so I did that on Friday in the new Peregrine, and the new Ultra Spire handheld as an experiment. It went pretty well, but I didn’t quite hit my target TSS from Training Peaks.

    @vk.trailrunner

    top of Green Monster, a classic route on #Strava taper week for #BrokenArrowSkyrace BrokenArrowSkyrace #trailrunning

    ♬ original sound – Charles Miske

    This morning, Saturday, I decided to run/walk/jog on one of my favorite trails nearby, Green Monster, a Strava route just a few miles away. I parked at the Murdock Canal parking and headed up Giddy-Up, a “hoof and boot” trail (meaning no mountain bikes, though there is a guerilla bike park about a quarter mile up it for the local kids in the hood), forked on the “Bench Road” (which is actually the BST-enough) and then up Green Monster for two laps. I did some sustained effort at 2500’/hr vertical, some intervals of strong power hiking at 3600’/hr and on the flatter sections, some intervals at 9:00 pace. On the return to the car I sustained a half mile-ish at 12:00 or less just to burn out the fat.

    Next time, let’s talk about the “Almost but not quite VK” next Friday, setting up HR zones in all the apps and stuff, and maybe some more fun things.

    Videos on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

  • Flaming Turtle Heads!

    Flaming Turtle Heads!

    Turtlehead Peak in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area just outside Las Vegas NV. I attempted it last year about this same time (due to gymnastics meet scheduling) but got lost, ran out of time and just plain wasn’t fit enough. This year though…

    • There are new trail markers
    • I uploaded a GPX file to my Suunto
    • I still got lost a few times
    • I was in much better shape
    • I had a couple hours free and clear

    Sadly I didn’t see any turtles. Or coyotes, or even a burro.

    Burro Crossing
    As close as I got to a burro on this trip.

    Check out the video for some interesting scenery, especially the panorama pan at the summit. Not really obvious in there, but you can see the parking lot at Sandstone Quarry from the summit.

    Then watch as I scan my results in the Stryd Power Center after the double-import. Doh! Yeah. So Suunto doesn’t get full Stryd Power stats, and won’t push correctly to the Power Center. So you create a second “fake” Stryd account, set that up in your phone (which in my case is an extra Droid, since that’s otherwise useless for Stryd) then download the .fit file and upload that to you real Stryd account.

    And there’s more! I scan my stats in Strava to compare it to my end goal, the Broken Arrow VK Skyrace in Squaw Valley in June. I did it in 2019, so have stats to compare. I didn’t do it in 2020 because CA was closed. Now they’re thinking it might be open, especially with the new climate of Hope and Change sweeping the nation. I hope so, because I’ll be ready.

  • Wahoo Tickr X Zwift Calibration

    The first time I ran on Zwift with the new TickrX Heart Rate strap I was impressed overall with the relatively stable signal it gave to my AppleTV. It seemed to record a bit high, meaning the numbers on Zwift sent my the TickrX for speed were more than the treadmill, more than the Stryd with RunCline, and while that feels awesome to see those kinds of numbers, I knew it wouldn’t be fair to myself or others.

    The TickrX is an advanced strap that provides running metrics to Zwift including heart rate, cadence and speed.

    Here’s a video I made of my own experience connecting and calibrating the Wahoo TickrX Heart Rate Strap.

    as an amazon affiliate I might make a small commission from this link that will not affect your final price

  • Running Morgan in the Dark

    Running Morgan in the Dark

    If you can call it running, sure.

    It’s at least getting in some vertical and testing out my ability to pull it off.

    I woke at 3:30 AM, while the world slept, and prepared to head out to do a not very popular Strava segment loosely called Morgan Blvd. Over the years it’s changed a bit, since there is a lot of overpriced, overlarge, overhyped housing development going on here on the far east side of north Utah County. On the one hand it’s nice because they added a little park and a paved rec path set down just a little bit further from the houses than before. On the other hand it’s cut out some of the trails and changed them somewhat. This has deprecated some of the old classic Strava segments and made them obsolete. Basically there’s no way to do them without running through someone’s garage. Alas …

    I enjoyed the sounds of crickets or frogs or whatever they were, and the twinkling city lights far below as I climbed the road. I was careful, nursing my twisted ankle since it was so very dark, and the light from the headlamp so very flat. I did roll off a few stones, but was able to stabilize with minimal pain. I didn’t go all that fast, but it was satisfying to get up there in  the dark. It helped a lot that I had already been up this trail a dozen or so times in the past.

    At the bottom I paused at the underpass tunnel on the rec path to share a few thoughts on training in spite of my heavy load right now.

    Check out the video below:

     

  • Elbrus Car Chat 15 August

    Elbrus Car Chat 15 August

    Sitting in my car at work thinking out loud about Elbrus Race. 

    I found the original impetus for this Elbrus Race insanity – the Red Fox Elbrus Race.  The website is somewhat klunky. More than somewhat, actually. I might have to keep my eyes open on it for when they announce the opening of registration for next May. The first week of May, surrounded by Russian Holidays. That might be interesting to check into.

    Red Fox Elbrus Race - May of 2019
    Red Fox Elbrus Race – May of 2019

    In case you missed the story, I was at the Barrels Huts coming down from an unsuccessful climb of Elbrus when we had to work around a few dozen super fit fast dudes getting off the lifts hauling crates and duffels of gear. They were all sporting logos from Red Fox and stating Elbrus Race. I dug around and found the next Elbrus Race, the next August and that began the “Rocky” phase of my training. Super vertical training mode.

    This began the fitness plan that eventually became “Summit Success: Training for Hiking, Mountaineering, and Peak Bagging” and has now evolved into “Rucking Simple Treadmill Training” and the now FREE online training program “Hikercize” which for the past four years has been $50 or more per year. Great deal, if you ask me.

    The rest is history.

    In the video below, I discuss that briefly, mention my current state of majorly tired, riding with the Team. Pre-riding race courses for the late summer race series, some of my duties as a high school mountain biking coach and maybe another thing or two.

     

  • The Road to Elbrus Starts Here

    The Road to Elbrus Starts Here

    Running in Elbrus Race Yet Again?

    Elbrus Race 2018? Skyrunning? For Real?

    Well I just had a really dumb idea.

    I received a Facebook Notice from the logistics company behind Elbrus Race. I hadn’t even considered it. Wowsers. If I train hard for only 6 weeks, can I get back to what I had achieved in 2013 [fifth place] and exceed it, even by a small margin? [Elbrus Race 2013 – my journal on Amazon]

    I haven’t run in months.

    Alpine Days Mountain Bike Race - 2nd Place in category
    Alpine Days Mountain Bike Race – 2nd Place in category

    My duties as a NICA Certified Level Three High School Mountain Bike Coach have taken quite a leap up from last year. I’ve had to train hard to keep up with my more advanced racing group, which is much much faster than last year by a large margin. I’ve been riding 60+ mile weeks, a mix of indoor trainer rides, with outdoor MTB rides. Much of that is faster and more technical than I am really up for, so I’m injured a lot. Like right now most of the scabs and bruises on my legs and elbows are pretty much healed. I twisted my ankle pretty badly in a race last Saturday, Aug 4th. Enough I couldn’t bear weight or push off with my toes for several days.

    [more skyrunning tagged articles here]

    I decided to do this little test. Could I go up Giddy-Up and Green Monster and descend in one go?

    If the answer is no, then good enough. I would have no real chance to get in enough serious training to make it happen. I would let it go for next year. I still might have to if it turns out I can’t work, and coach, and train and stay fit and unbroken enough.

    Then again, there are also several major logistics hoops to jump through:

    • Can I pull off a Russian Visa in the time given?
    • Can I make it work even though they’ve closed the Seattle Visa Center, where I usually go?
    • If I have to use the Mail-In service?
    • Can I get flights that line up with the start and finish times of the Elbrus Package associated with the race?
    • Can I skip one High School Race this year?
    • Or do I need to figure a way to fly around it?